​​​March, 2025:  With deep concern about current policies and actions of our State of Kansas and United States leadership, Heartland Friends sent the following letter to our local, state and national elected officials and to the Wichita Eagle.​

 

March 18, 2025​

 

Dear ______________________,​

 

We of Heartland Friends Quaker Meeting in Wichita, Kansas expect our elected members of Congress, our courts and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) to: 1) maintain legal status for those under DACA (deferred action for childhood arrivals), 2) create a pathway for U.S. citizenship, and 3) protect a pathway for those who come to our country to work.

 

​In addition, we affirm action taken to ensure that all individuals have a right to freedom of worship, to equal education and to health care.

 

We expect that ICE be barred from conducting immigration enforcement activities in houses of worship, schools and hospitals (ref. Case 8:25-cv-00243-TDC filed 1-25-2025 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland).​

 

We expect our leaders to not repeat the cruelty and denial of human rights that is our unfortunate legacy, such as with Indigenous Native Americans. 

 

​If the only “illegal” act of an individual is the crossing of a border in search of safety and a better life, we believe offering a humane path to U.S. citizenship results in far better justice than family-separation and forced deportation.  We are currently disrupting the lives of productive, tax-paying individuals without (and some with) documentation by separating them from jobs, families and communities.  This is an unacceptable way of addressing issues we have refused to resolve for decades.​

 

As Friends (Quakers), we believe there is that of God in every human heart.  We believe the Divine calls us to affirm all people, acting with justice and compassion and treating our global friends and neighbors as we wish to be treated.We urge you to change course from the current presidential executive orders.

 

Signed, Heartland Friends Quaker Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends

Co-Clerks:  Connie Adams, Gail Kinzer, Jaylene Reed​

 

​Distributed to:  The Wichita Eagle; Chief Justice of the Supreme Court; Justices of the Supreme Court; Immigration & Customs Enforcement: Director and Executive Enforcement Director; State of Kansas Members of Congress; Members of the Kansas State Legislature for the Greater Wichita area; Mayor of Wichita, Kansas; Members of the Wichita City Council; New England Yearly Meeting of Friends

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